The score is not final.

Hi friends!

I know today is late. But, I promise it will be worth the wait. Just keep reading!

Down 8. Two outs. One out left.

Yesterday afternoon I was on my couch, half-watching and half-working, when Texas Tech softball stopped me completely.

They were down 8 to 0. Bottom of the seventh inning. Two outs. One out from the game being over. In most cases, people would say this is the end of the game for them.

However, that wasn't the case for the 2025 NCAA D1 Softball Champions. They just kept going.

This century, teams were 0 and 640 when trailing by eight or more runs in the NCAA softball tournament. The math said it was done. History said it was done.

But Lauren Allred led off with a single. Somebody got a hit. Then somebody else. By the time Allred came back to the plate with the bases loaded, she hit a grand slam to tie the game and I was off my couch hollering.

They never got down. They just kept going.

Ole Miss came back in the eighth and retook the lead. So Texas Tech had to do it again. Stay steady. Trust what they knew. Their ace pitcher NiJaree Canady had been pulled early after a rough outing and came back in to close it out. Texas Tech won 10 to 9.

There is not a doubt that they practiced for that moment. Maybe not this exact scenario but how they showed up daily. So when the time came, they knew what to do with it.

I have called the game on myself too.

After the game, I sat there thinking about how many times I have already called the game on myself.

Not out loud. But somewhere quiet I decided it was too late. That there was too much going on. That the dream I had for myself belonged to a younger version of me with fewer responsibilities and more nerve. I have benched myself before the game had a chance to turn.

What about you? Is there something you stopped swinging at because the score felt like it got too big?

Nobody erases everything at once. The question is whether you stay in it long enough to get back to the plate.

The reps that make the seventh inning possible.

Those women did not walk into that seventh inning on hope alone. They walked in on reps. On practice. On knowing what they were capable of because they had already proven it to themselves over and over before that moment ever came.

That is what I keep coming back to. You do not rise to the occasion. You rise to the level of what you have already been putting in.

I have been working on something for a few weeks now and I am so excited to finally share it. It is called the 5 Daily Anchors and it is my version of putting in reps every single day.

• Faith. The thing that grounds you before the day gets loud. Whatever reminds you who you are before everyone else says what they need.
• Move. Your body was not built to sit still and carry this much. Ten minutes, a walk, something that makes you feel alive in your own skin.
• Connect. One real moment with another person. Not a scroll. An actual conversation, a text that means something. You were not made to carry this alone.
• Build. The thing that is just yours. A project, a dream, something you are creating that belongs to no one else. Even ten minutes counts. This is the one I protect first, before everything else, because it is the one that reminds me I am still someone becoming.
• Reflect. Before you close your eyes, you look back. Not to grade yourself. Just to notice what happened, what you felt, what you want to carry forward.

Five anchors. Yours to define. Yours to protect. Yours to come back to on the days when the score does not look good.

Find Your Five is a guided experience to help you figure out what your five are. I want you to know what you are capable of before life asks you to prove it.

​Find Your 5 → HERE ​

The score is not final until the game is actually over.

Stay anchored,

LCJ

P.S. If you have a woman in your life who'd recognize herself in this, forward it to her. The Sunday Anchor is for her too.